MIAMI BEACH, FL.- Following the success of «Art Perform» in 2005, Art Basel Miami Beach continues its support of artists wor-king in the sphere of performance and live art in 2006 with the second edition of its performance program. «Art Perform» is a platform for emerging international ar-tists, who are invited to devise and present specially com-missioned site- and context-specific works. Selected by Jens Hoffmann, Director, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, 7 artists from around the globe have created presentations that engage directly with the realities of Miami and the particular conditions of the art show. «Art Perform» is located at the exhibition and event venue in Collins Park on the beach, featuring along-side young galleries at «Art Positions», «Art Projects», the Open-Air Cinema, and appearances by artist-DJs.

The performance work by Carlos Amorales («Spider Monkey Drawing», 2006) is executed by performer Galia Eibenschutz, who will develop her movements for the piece on the basis of an imaginary spider web that she will place over the stage. The dancer will elaborate the character of a spider via invisible web lines along which she will move. Working with a performer means directing her through that imaginary space. It is an activity that implies intense silent mental and physical concentration. There will be no special costumes or distinctive set design, the idea being that what emerges is on the imaginary level, with the drawing as a mental projection insinuated by the dancer's move-ments.
Date: December 8
Time: 5pm

«Money – A Cautionary Tale» is a collaboration between six members of the Spartacus Chetwynd troupe from London and the medieval metal band «The Princes In The Tower». The six performers will mime different narratives to accompany the band's live set.

Each of these acts is a cautionary tale ramming home the moral fate of those who pursue self-interested financial gain. The scarred and carbuncled history of the Middle Ages is well documented by Boccaccio, Chaucer, Bruegel, and Bosch. These are the sources of this performance, along with Brecht's writing on folk theater and Bakhtin's «Rabelais and His World»: the urge is to let the carnevalesque surface in the context of Art Basel Miami Beach.
Dates: December 7 and 8
Time: 9pm
December 10
Time: 5pm

The short films by Joao Maria Gusmao & Pedro Pavia, which will be shown in a late night screening under the name «The Magnetic Effluvium», are part of a philosophical enquiry relating to a thematic recovery of a fictional meteorological phenomenon. In one of his novels («The Man Who Laughs»), Victor Hugo speaks of a terrifying snowstorm at sea. The author goes on to speculate over the scientific possibility of such an occurrence, arguing that the chaotic wind and wave effects are driven by polar magnetism. The implications of this event confront us with an epistemological paradox: how does the literary fiction of an unimaginable storm deal with the impossibility of a description and, by extension, the impossibility of representation. Victor Hugo sets a sort of enigmatic chaos or vortex in motion: the empirical motion of the Magnetic Effluvium is circumvented in order to present chaos as a «multiple effect theory» relating to one fundamental cause, the shipwreck.
Date: December 9
Time: 9:30pm

«Object Relations» is the result of a two-month open rehearsal process between dancer/actor Nina Fog and artist Daria Martin. Fog has worked intensively with Martin before, starring in her films «Soft Materials», 2005, and «Wintergarden», 2005. But this live performance process has afforded a new start for them: a chance to play openly over time. Fresh from a summer dance workshop with dance pioneer Anna Halprin, who teaches methods for unself-conscious improvisation based on internal impulses as well as the natural environment, Martin is keen to test these methods against the highly self-conscious and artificial environment of an art show. The result is a headlong journey into movement and voice, body and costume, prop and prosthetic, drawing from techniques of Butoh and Soviet theater as well as Halprin's organic approach.
Date: December 9
Time: 9pm

For the duration of Art Basel Miami Beach 2006, Canadian artist Gareth Moore will operate out of a small self-designed kiosk and vending structure that will sell items such as art catalogs, pens, maps, disposable cameras, bumper stickers, lemonade, and other objects, most of which have been slightly altered or hand made. The kiosk will be situated within close proximity to the «Art Perform» area stage and the gallery containers of «Art Positions». The artist will operate his kiosk during the regular opening hours of «Art Positions» over the course of the art show and including those times scheduled for other performances.
Date: December 7 to 10
Time: 2 – 10pm

Robin Rhode's project for «Art Perform» will take on the theme of boxing in relation to the fact that Art Basel Miami Beach is held at the same venue as the legendary heavyweight title fight between Cassius Clay a.k.a. Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston in 1964, the Miami Beach Convention Center. Rhode will realize a series of «ad hoc» performances around the «Art Positions» container of his gallery, Perry Rubinstein (New York). These unannounced and ephemeral works will seek to investigate the cul-tural role of boxing in 1964 along with the human rights move-ment during that period. At the same time the project will invest-tigate the position of the art show in relation to the historic title fight of 1964 as well as the idea of the artist/performer as fighter, the fighter as entertainer and cultural producer.
Date: December 7 to 10
Time: Ongoing